S. Korean cult pastor jailed 15 years for raping followers

Wednesday March 18 2020

South Korean pastor Lee Jaerock arrives at the Seoul Central District Court to attend his trial in Seoul on November 22, 2018. The South Korean cult leader was convicted on November 22 of the multiple rape of eight female followers - some of whom believed he was God - and jailed for 15 years. PHOTO | JUNG YEON-JE | AFP

Summary

Pastor Lee Jaerock's victims were "unable to resist as they were subject to the accused's absolute religious authority".

Religious devotion is widespread in technologically advanced South Korea, with 44 percent of people identifying themselves as believers.

A South Korean cult leader was convicted Thursday of the multiple rape of eight female followers -- some of whom believed he was God -- and jailed for 15 years.

Pastor Lee Jaerock's victims were "unable to resist as they were subject to the accused's absolute religious authority", judge Chung Moon-sung told the Seoul Central District Court.

KING, GOD

Religious devotion is widespread in technologically advanced South Korea, with 44 percent of people identifying themselves as believers.

Most belong to mainstream churches, which can accumulate wealth and influence with tens of thousands of followers donating as much as 10 percent of their income.

But fringe groups are also widespread -- experts say around 60 people in the country claim to be divine -- and some have been implicated in fraud, brainwashing, coercion, and other behaviour associated with cults worldwide.

Mr Jaerock set up the Manmin Central Church in Guro, once a poor area of Seoul, with just 12 followers in 1982. It has now grown to 130,000 members, with a spotlight-filled auditorium, sprawling headquarters, and a website replete with claims of miracle cures.

But three of Pastor Jaerock 's followers went public earlier this year, as South Korea was swept with a wave of #MeToo accusations, saying he had summoned each of them to an apartment and forced them to have sex.

"I was unable to turn him down," one of them told South Korean television. "He was more than a king. He was God," added the woman, who had been a church member since childhood.

SELF DEIFICATION

Mr Jaerock told another that she was now in Heaven, and to strip as Adam and Eve went naked in the Garden of Eden. "I cried as I hated to do it," she told JTBC television.

Eight women laid criminal complaints, and the court found the pastor raped and molested them "tens of times" over a long period.

"Through his sermons the accused has indirectly or directly suggested he is the holy spirit, deifying himself," the judge said.

The victims believed him to be "a divine being who wields divine power", he added.

Pastor Jaerock, who denied the charges, stood with his eyes closed as the judgement was read, showing no emotion, while around 100 followers filled the courtroom to overflowing, some of them sighing quietly.

The 75-year-old's lawyers had accused the women of lying to seek vengeance after being excommunicated for breaching church rules.